"John, can we talk?"

John closed the browser on his laptop and looked up to Olasie hovering over him.

"Yeah," He said, nodding, "What's up?"

"Somewhere a bit more private?"

John just stood up from the lunch table and motioned for her to follow him to the elevator.

"My quarters please, EDI."

"Of course, Commander."

The lift rose and John crossed his arms.

"What's this about, Olasie?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Reena."

He kept a straight face.

"I remembered something. Not sure if it'll clear us up on the incident, but something that we need to point out to the admiralty."

"What?"

"I sent an AAR when we were on Illium. Forwarded everything we did and what we planned on doing in the coming weeks."

"To whom?"

"Admiral Gerrel. I told him we were going to Bekenstein. I even told him about hitting up Hock's estate."

They arrived at John's room and he put his hands on his hips.

"That doesn't make sense," He started, walking out of the elevator with Olasie following him, "If you did that, this shit shouldn't have happened."

"I know."

They entered the anti-septic suite and waited for the misting jets to spray them down.

When they finally entered the room, Olasie took a seat on John's couch and crossed her arms tightly around her chest. "I just... don't understand."

John just gripped the back of one his chairs and stared distantly at the floor. "Put me on the phone with the Admirals. We need to fix this right now."

"I don't think that's a good idea. They might think you're trying to clean house and get away with treason. You are, after all, a crewmember of the Neema."

"It won't matter when Gerrel finds that report you sent him."

"If they even let you get that far." She said woefully, "Keelah Shepard... what a goddamned mess."

Her head dropped in her hands. All John could do was stare sadly. To try and help, he put a hand on the poor woman's shoulder to help console her.

"I'm sorry, Olasie. None of us knew."

She drew out a flat breath. "Yeah."

There was a long pause before Olasie finally brought out her omni-tool to request a call.

It took nearly five minutes before Olasie got an answer.

"Olasie?" Gerrel didn't hide the surprise in his voice, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Admiral." Olasie answered, "We have a problem."

"What is it?" Gerrel asked.

"I have Shepard here. He needs the other admirals on a conference call. Especially Admiral Xen."

There was a noticeable pause. Enough for Olasie to think that Admiral Gerrel knew everything that was going on about Reena. No doubt the man was wondering what to say next.

"...Are you under duress?"

"No sir," Olasie shook her head, "I assure you that I'm not."

"Stand-by."

They were put on hold and John decided to sit down on the chair next to her.

"You want coffee or anything?"

Olasie nodded lamely. "Yeah. I could go for coffee."

John stood up to fetch one of Tali's Hodgkin lattes. He came back a few minutes later with a straw and perfectly hot thermos for the quarian.

"Here."

"Thanks."

He sat back down next to her when she took a testing sip.

"What do you think they're going to say?"

"I don't know," John shrugged, "You should know more than I do."

Olasie didn't say anything and sipped her coffee.

Two minutes pass before Olasie's omni-tool went off to show that a conference call was getting set up with webcams.

She answered and four admirals popped up.

"Hello." Olasie said, setting down her thermos, "We have a lot to talk about."

"We do." Raan said quietly.

"I have Shepard here. I think I'll let him do the talking."

The looks John received when he came into view could have been anything between disgust and hatred.

"Admirals. I'm not going to flatter you with platitudes. Something bad happened and it got one of your own killed by my own. Admiral Daro'Xen. I'm sorry. Words can't measure up to the loss of your operative and I'm aware of that."

"You have much more to answer for aside from murder." Daro said critically.

John took a breath and pushed aside Daro's pragmatic remark. "Olasie'Venn sent Admiral Gerrel an after action report shortly after our embarkation from Illium. She detailed in her report our next mission on Bekenstein and our intent to relieve Mr. Donovan Hock of critical information in his possession. Part of that meant we had to go in with fake names and fake backgrounds and to fool everyone and anyone. Reena'Wahl included."

Daro remained silent, but her piercing stare lingered.

"Gerrel," Daro called evenly, "Please confirm Olasie's report."

Gerrel looked down momentarily to access his long list of emails. It wasn't long before he took a breath, sighed, and nodded slowly, if not regretfully. "It's all here, Daro. Timestamped days before they even arrived on Bekenstein."

"Forward it. Everyone stays on until I'm done reading."

Rael just took a breath and kept his hands clasped on his desk.

"Where's Tali?"

"Tasked with engineering, sir." Shepard answered dutifully.

Rael simply nodded.

When Daro was done, she leaned restlessly back in her chair and sighed.

"John'Shepard vas Neema," She announced through a slow whisper, "I cannot express how deep my disappointment is with the events that have unfolded these past thirty six hours. I've lost my best source. A setback the Migrant Fleet may never recover from. Reena's op was vital, and I don't have the resources to condition someone else to take her place."

John was prepared for something like that, so he made Daro an offer he hoped she wouldn't refuse.

"We can fix this. We can find the smuggler. I have a cohort of mine that can help. She's an information broker on Illi—"

Daro interjected by shaking her head and raising a hand. "No. We don't involve anyone outside of the Migrant Fleet with such sensitive military matters. A broker is a capitalistic service. Not run by justice. Not run by altruism. And that will only serve to be a conflict of interest. The difference between classified information and publicized data is how many zeroes a harebrained broker puts at the end of a price."

John wanted to mention that Liara was different, but there really wasn't any point in pressing points that weren't going to be helping him any.

"Yes ma'am."

"So why did you do it." Raan asked without it sounding at all like a question, "Why did you kill Reena."

"Her name is Iwia'Vara." Daro decided to mention with a lilt in her voice.

"We put it up to vote." John said without meeting any of their gazes, "The vote was to tag and execute eighteen acutely corrupt individuals beyond any recall on Hock's estate. It won and Iwia ended up being on that list. The background we ran on her was completely thorough. We had no second guesses or doubts to the things we thought she did."

Rael crossed his arms and breathed in. "To say the least Daro, at least we know how progressively well designed your covers are."

"Under better circumstances Rael, I would have agreed with you. But this is not the time to be admiring our work."

"The point still stands." Rael argued, "Iwia knew her duty. And part of that duty entailed risks that we can't always foresee. But it happened and there isn't anything we can do other than pay closer attention to the paperwork Shepard and his team sends through."

Olasie leaned in close, sniffled, and put a hand over her chin. "...Did Iwia have family?"

Gerrel, Raan, and Rael all looked at Daro.

"No." Xen answered, shaking her head. "None to speak of."

Olasie sighed and felt only a partial amount of relief. By no means did Olasie consider what happened to be acceptable. But if Iwia had kids and a husband? The guilt might have crushed the poor woman.

"What do we do from here?"

"You have a mission, Shepard." Daro said finally, "We all do. And in light of current evidence, any and all efforts to investigate and charge John'Shepard vas Neema and Tali'Zorah vas Neema will be withdrawn."

"Admiral Daro." John said sadly, "I'm sorry."

Daro looked briefly to John. And, with her look of bereaved sadness and undoubted contempt to Commander Shepard, logged off.

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Tali set down the red tool box, the one she'd procured from Kenneth Donnelly about two days ago, and got to work.

Conversations between everyone in engineering had been reserved as of late, and Tali knew why. She selected a long socket wrench and eyed the four bolts she needed to unscrew on this panel covering a labyrinth of circuits. The last time she'd done this, John said it looked like a pack of ramen noodles. She didn't know what ramen was, but felt inclined to agree with him.

"Ma'am, meters are green. Everything's working as intended." Daniels reported. Tali simply nodded and selected a ten millimeter.

Tali got to unscrewing the second bolt before realizing Daniels was still standing behind her.

"Yes?"

"…You okay?"

Tali looked down and the socket wrench dropped to her side. She hadn't really asked herself that question. Was she okay? Tali supposed that she was. But Reena…

"I don't know."

"We're here, if that's any help." The woman said, "Kenneth and I."

"Thank you. But I'll be fine." Tali said with a small and partly forced smile.

Tali resumed her task and Daniels walked away without another word. Thirty minutes passed in complete silence.

When Tali was done doing whatever it was she needed to do, she leaned on her workstation, glanced over the readings, and saw that everything was as Daniels reported it to be.

Sometimes there wasn't much to do on the Normandy. And right now, that wasn't a day she wanted to have.

Tali knelt down to take a look at the boxes of parts she'd tossed under their work table before noticing the chatter coming from just outside the hallway.

Two krogan, one from Garrus' squad, and the other being Grunt passed by. Then it was Olasie and John that came around the corner to see Tali.

"Hey."

"Hey guys." Tali greeted as she meandered through the parts in her box, "What's up?"

"Daro cleared us."

Tali immediately stood up and faced Olasie.

"…You can't be serious."

"We are." Shepard said, "Got off the phone with the admirals not ten minutes ago. Explained the whole situation. Reported all of our findings and cleared everyone of everything."

Tali blinked and felt only minutely better. Even if they weren't in trouble anymore, it didn't change the fact that they'd literally killed Reena.

Tali played with the frill of her hood and breathed deeply before facing Olasie. "How are you feeling?"

Olasie looked at the grates underneath their feet and bit her lip. "Well. I spread her brains across a room and saw it all. So I'm not too thrilled I did that."

"Olasie. I'm so sorry."

"Mistakes happen. I suppose if I were in Reena's shoes, I would've understood."

John crossed his arms and leaned back on the wall. "I also talked to Garrus. I told him what happened can't happen again."

Tali crossed her arms as well. "What did he say?"

"He doesn't agree."

"He doesn't have a choice." Tali argued, incredulous, "We can't do that again."

"I know. The opportunity we had was probably a once in a lifetime chance anyhow. Our focus is on the collectors and reapers. Not people who practice shady business."

"I can live with that answer." Olasie nodded, staring dutifully at her toes, "I'll be uh… I think I'm going to take a nap. That alright with you boss?"

"That's fine with me, Olasie." John nodded, "Take as much time as you need."

"Thanks."

Olasie left John and Tali alone.

"Who called who?"

"I did." John said, "Told them exactly why we were there and what we were after."

"They just believed you?"

"No." He shook his head before forwarding a packet of info to her omni-tool, "Olasie just remembered this morning: She sent Admiral Gerrel an AAR and briefing of what we were going to do on Bekenstein, right down to where we were at. Reason why it didn't get flagged earlier is because… well—because Gerrel didn't read it."

Tali swallowed and closed her eyes. "…Someone died because of paperwork."

"Yeah." John nodded solemnly, barely meeting her gaze, "That's exactly right."

Tali drew herself in for a hug and sighed at his embrace.

"I could really go for a beer." She mumbled.

He chuckled, if only slightly. "I think we can do that."

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

Four hours later.

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Sitting down on the sofa, John uncapped his beer and took a hefty swig.

Tali sat down soon after before crossing her legs over the coffee table and uncapping her own turian beer. She took a testing sip before downing a quarter in one go.

"Wow. Beer tastes good."

"It's definitely a taste that grows on you."

"I remember you telling me you hated the taste of beer."

"I think I told myself that just to stop drinking so much of it. Makes you fat."

Tali got a little more comfortable. "Tell me what you talked about with the Admiralty."

"Well... we won't be having to take a trip to the Flotilla for treason."

"You're shitting me." Tali grunted, "I mean, I'm not surprised knowing that they thought we were stealing and selling quarian weapons, but holy hell John."

"Yeah. It was pretty damn serious."

Tali stared at her drink with a bland look on her face and closed her eyes. "It's going to follow us, you know that?"

"I know. Innocent or not, it doesn't change what they think of me now. Just hoping your dad understands."

"Yeah." She murmured as she chewed on her tongue. She played with the building condensation on her cold glass.

"I let Olasie have one of your coffees. She and I talked up here away from everyone."

"That's alright," Tali said, swaying her hand, "It's the least you could've done for her."

"Can't believe how close of a shave we were to being tried Tali. What a piss of luck for everyone. Especially Iwia."

"That's Reena's real name?"

"Yeah."

She set her glass down and put a hand over her eyes in slight frustration. "Wow. Just... damnit."

"We made a mistake." John whispered, cradling the neck of his bottle with both hands, "One we can't make again. We owe it to her."

"Nothing's as clear cut as it was back on the old Normandy." Tali said.

"No. Lots of gray. Tons of it."

She stood up and sat down next to him before swinging her feet over his lap and grabbing his hand.

"You remember how religious Ashley was?"

"Yeah. I remember. She'd pray a lot. Kept her bible inside a pouch on her chest rig."

Tali recalled vaguely the paper book Ash would tote around sometimes on the SR1. Remembered how she would hold prayer meetings weekly with the crew. The turnout rate was never high. Nor was it consistent. And a lot of the times, no one would even show up. Tali didn't think it was a coincidence that maybe it was because everyone on the ship was well aware of what the reapers were attempting to do. I mean, knowing that the reapers were cleansing the galaxy of life every 50,000 years? That should be enough to realize that an omnipotent being existing with your best interests in mind was probably not true.

"I never knew that." Tali finally said.

"Why'd you ask?"

"Dealing with all this just made me wonder how Ashley internalized a lot of the things we dealt with back on the old Normandy."

"She believed it to be all part of a divine plan."

The absurdity of that made Tali frown. "So the whole thing with Saren? And Kaidan dying? And everything else? That was part of a pre-ordained plan?"

"It's hard to explain."

"Well. It doesn't sound any different than quarian religions. Wish I could think like that though sometimes. Would probably make you feel better about a lot of things."

"It's probably why she does it." John suggested, "Coping with the things you've done or seen. Some people find comfort in it."

Tali glowered and wasn't convinced. "Maybe."

John finished his beer and shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe."